The adaptive reuse of portions of the vacated Hahne & Co. department store provides Rutgers University with a unique, mission-driven opportunity to strengthen its relationship with the community of Newark and the State of New Jersey. The development of this historic landmark as a center for the creation, exhibition, and conversation of Arts and Communications enhances the city’s “Arts Triangle”— the downtown area under development to reignite the vibrancy of Newark’s city core.

Rutgers is developing approximately 38,594 sf of the 441,000 sf building as a distinctive, community-based educational program that includes an art incubator, community media center, portrait studio, design consortium, and letterpress studio. Community partnerships are numerous, including charter schools, county and city colleges, boys and girls clubs, the city museum, and local professional artists. Ultimately, the center will become a beacon of diversity, drawing together people of all ages, ethnicities, and occupations—utilizing the Arts as a common bond.

For Rutgers University, as an anchor institution in Newark, it is through the thoughtfully crafted relationship between architecture and community that the fabric of its urban neighborhood will be strengthened and revitalized. A great place, such as the renovated and re-purposed Hahne & Co. Building, will not only bring a community of students and neighbors together, but inspire it to do great things.